From John Lemon
Ada OK — (July 27, 2013) — Shane Sellers stood tall in the saddle and captured his first ever Oil Capital Racing Series sprint car feature win when he capitalized on a miscue by feature race leader Fred Mattox at George Welch’s Oklahoma Sports Park on an unusually cool summer evening. With the victory in the 25-lap affair, Sellers becomes the 10th different winning driver in 15 events conducted in the 2013 OCRS racing season and the seventh driver just this season alone to win their first ever series main event.
Mattox started on the pole in his Pacer Energy Marketing / D&J Tank Trucks / AKL / Champion Oil / Mattox Engines / XXX chassis and got the jump at the start to lead over Sellers who started along side Mattox in his Checkered Flag Trucking / Outlaw Wings / Red River Valley Farms / Riverside Auto Salvage / Brand Racing Engines / Maxim sprinter. Casey Wills, who won the last OCRS main event two weeks ago settled into third position at the completion of the opening lap followed by Chance Morton, a winner at the Caney Valley Speedway in May.
An early battle for the fifth position saw “The Princess”, Shayla Waddell and Johnny ‘Hotrod’ Kent go at one another side by side for an entire lap and a half while never once separating from one another until Kent got the advantage on Waddell at one point coming out of turn four only to have Waddell get back by Kent before another lap was completed. The action of these two drivers alone had the crowd enthralled with what they were witnessing.
Entering lap seven, Mattox came upon lapped traffic and what lead he had on Sellers began to evaporate. Sellers would reel Mattox in but would not muster enough steam to make a pass. Working the tenth and eleven laps, a big battle was taking place among Kent, Gary Owens (who won at OSP in May) and current points leader Harli White for the seventh position. Working lap 12, White would get by Owens and as the field took the halfway sign from OCRS starter JD Etter, a huge crash occurred between Brandon James and Dillon Ake in turn three with both cars flipping. Fortunately both drivers would be OK.
The restart line up saw Mattox, who was celebrating his 21st birthday, on top followed by Sellers, and then the lapped cars of Chuck Bellefeuille and Michael Tyre with the third place car of Casey Wills next, then Chance Morton and Waddell. Back underway; Sellers would make a charge to take the top spot but Mattox refused to relinquish the point. Danny Smith would work his way to sixth behind Waddell and White would begin to make her presence known at this point moving in behind Smith.
White, in her Tucker Roustabout / Terraco Soil Farming / All Star Café / Bishop Racing Components / Charlie’s Trucking / Boyd Racing Engines / Maxim car, would get around Smith on lap 16. Back up front, the leaders were staring down lap traffic for another time. On the 21st lap, it became doomsday for Mattox. Entering turns three and four, Mattox got caught up with a lapped car and tuned over brining out the second red flag of the race. Mattox, who lost a race at OSP when he turned over just 25 yards from the finish line in September of 2011, was OK but obviously highly disappointed that he wasn’t able to provide himself the birthday present he set out to get.
This would put Sellers on the point for a five-lap shootout with Wills, in the AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories / Casey’s Oil Express / DSO Engines / ART sprinter second, followed by Morton, Waddell, White (up from tenth), Smith, Owens and Kent. On the restart, it was White who really went to work as she shot by Waddell coming out of turn two and immediately went by Morton as well to move into third place. Smith and Owens would each work their way past Waddell as well. Coming down for the white flag lap, White swept past Wills for the runner-up spot and she would retain that spot as Sellers would cross the line for the win the next time by. Wills held on for third with Morton, Smith, Owens, Waddell, Sheldon Barksdale, Kent and Alex DeCamp rounding out the top ten.
Barksdale would earn the AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories ‘Hard Charger’ award by passing eleven cars in the feature from his 19th starting position. Mattox would be the recipient of the Dyno Services of Oklahoma “Hard Luck’ award.
“Its really good to get this win for my guys” said a proud winner in victory lane. “He (Mattox) had a good car tonight and we were doing everything we could to stay with him and when got into trouble, it played into our favor. The track was good and you could run just about anywhere but you really had to be careful with the lapped traffic tonight. OCRS has done a good thing with their new starting format as it allows an even chance to win. We hope to win some more soon.”
The next event on the OCRS 2013 tour will be held at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore Oklahoma on August 17th. For more information on the OCRS sprint car series including updates, stories, photos, complete 2013-point standings and future schedules, log onto: www.ocrsracing.com
You can also checkout our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/oil.series
OCRS Race Results
Oklahoma Sports Park / Ada Oklahoma
Date of Race: Saturday July 27, 2013
Event number 15
Car count: 26
(Pos-Car-Driver-Start)
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Heat
1, 50-Brandon James[5]. 2, 88S-Shayla Waddell[3]. 3, 101-Dillon Ake[7]. 4, 25-Chuck Bellefeuille[2]. 5, 3G-Jeff Garnett[1]. 6, 94-Dan Schnackenberg[4]. 7, 20-Sheldon Barksdale[6].
Bob Hurley Auto Family Heat
1, 7m-Chance Morton[2]. 2, 31-Casey Wills[1]. 3, 84-Alex DeCamp[6]. 4, 77-Donny McConnell[4]. 5, 12-David Lambert[3]. 6, 007-Michael Bookout[5]. 7, 5J-Paul Johnson[7].
Drive Shafts Inc. Heat
1, 55-Johnny Kent[1]. 2, 33-Gary Owens[6]. 3, 8M-Kade Morton[2]. 4, 78-Perry Pickard[3]. 5, 9$-Kyle Clark[4]. 6, 22-David Stephenson[5].
Car and Fleet Parts Heat
1, 26M-Fred Mattox[3]. 2, 4-Shane Sellers[2]. 3, 17W-Harli White[5]. 4, 5$-Danny Smith[6]. 5, 11-Michael Tyre[4]. 6, 22K-Koby Barksdale[1].
Wesmar Racing Engines B Feature (Top 8 transfer)
1, 8M-Kade Morton[1]. 2, 25-Chuck Bellefeuille[2]. 3, 9$- Kyle Clark [7], 4. 22k- Koby Barksdale [12] 5, 77-Donny McConnell [3]. 6, 11-Michael Tyre[8]. 7, 20-Sheldon Barksdale[12]. 8, 22-David Stephenson11]. 9, 12-David Lambert[6]. 10, 007-Michael Bookout[10]. 11, 94-Dan Schnackenberg[9]. 12, 3G-Jeff Garnett[5]. 13, 78-Perry Pickard[4]. 14, 5J-Paul Johnson (DNS).
OCRS A Feature
1, 4-Shane Sellers[2]. 2, 17W-Harli White[10]. 3, 31-Casey Wills[4]. 4, 7m- Chance Morton[3]. 5, 5$-Danny Smith[9]. 6, 33-Gary Owens[7]. 7, 88S- Shayla Waddell[6]. 8, 20-Sheldon Barksdale[19]. 9, 55-Johnny Kent[5]. 10, 84-Alex DeCamp[8]. 11, 9$-Kyle Clark[15]. 12, 22-David Stephenson[18]. 13, 8M-Kade Morton[13]. 14, 25-Chuck Bellefeuille[14]. 15, 11-Michael Tyre[16]. 16, 77-Donny McConnell[17]. 17, 26M-Fred Mattox[1]. 18, 50-Brandon James[12]. 19, 101-Dillion Ake[11]. 20, 22K-Koby Barksdale[20].
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories “Hard Charger”: Sheldon Barksdale
Dyno Services of Oklahoma ‘Hard Luck Award’: Fred Mattox